A whole lotta nuthin'.
I finished JNoWriMo on time and with a surplus of 2,325 words. Aside from an oh-shit moment or two, it went relatively stress-free. I didn't work on "Kray" the whole time, or even half the time, finding a lot of my creative juices flowing towards one of two of the girls' brothers: Kaven.
For as long as I've been planning and writing this series the five sisters have always had two older brothers, but they've never really played a part in the girls' stories aside from a couple of cameos. All five of the girls' stories are more or less plotted out, so...oops, I guess I'm a little behind on the brothers' stories, aren't I?
Drat. Not that I'm close to any sort of a contract or book deal or anything, but this gets me thinking: should I write the boys' stories so they're integrated in with the girls', or should I treat them as a separate two-book series--or perhaps as single titles--apart from the girls'?
The shitty thing is I have a title stamp for all seven books--"The Defenders of ISLAND: Kray"--so both Kaven and Kane are working towards the same resolution as their sisters. The five sisters have pendants with a unique design each that matches the design of the heroes...should I do the same for the boys?
I've had a couple of gangbuster writing days thus far in March, but I'm certainly not pushing myself as I would be/have been during Na/JNoWriMo. My "putzing" has allowed for a certain degree of daydreaming, or, ahem, "planning" for my two series. I've come up with a lot of new names and name ideas for series that still have a ways to go. I may need some naming help--see below.
On a more personal, metaphysical note, I've noticed a trend with my personal creativity and drive to write. Perhaps I'm on a lull since JNoWriMo, but I've also noticed that a lot of my writing coincides with where I am cycle-wise in the month. Not only does that have some influence on my desire to write, but what I write about specifically. Namely, of course, the hot and juicy love scenes (those would correspond with the middle of the month, when the big O is hittin' hard.) I've also realized that my desire to write narrative over dialogue fluctuates over the month. And as women's tastes in men change over the cycle (true story), I've noticed that I sometimes lose interest in writing in one story over another because the physical and emotional characteristics of that hero may turn me off...and those of another hero turn me on. Perhaps this is a trend with reading romance novels as well. This is not-so-convenient when you're trying to finish a fuckin' novel so you can move on to the next and the next and the next...followed by the pursuit of publication and consequent infamy.
And sometimes it's just not enough to move onto another part of the same novel, if skipping around is your thing.
To sum up the past 45-some days, "Kray" currently stands at 225 pages and 117,000 words, and I think I still have some 20-25% more to write for story completion. The thought of writing another 30-50 pages isn't daunting so much as it is exhilarating--this is going to be a hefty book. That makes for a decent start to the series.
"Kaven" has a story and a decent start with some decent dialogue. I've figured out just what sort of character he is and the sort of character he falls in love with (no name yet... again, see below.) "Kane" has no story yet, although where Kaven heads to England to inherit a dukedom from a great-uncle he never met, Kane is actually fighting some battle on mainland Europe. No plot is written out yet, and I still have no idea about the heroine's look, personality or name. Definite possibilities for cameos in each of their stories.
So. Names.
First we have my heroine for Kaven. Kaven's heroine is a widow to a captain who died in the same war Kane happens to be fighting in (imagine that.) A widow for two years or so, she's taken to renting a boarding house/school for girls from Kaven's great-uncle duke. She's very protective of the girls living there and wants to do good. She can't do much else since she was left nearly destitute by her dead husband. She's blonde, beautiful. Her father, however, is a pastor, and quite devout. My series takes place in the future after Christianity has not exactly died but just fizzled a bit, but her father is a Jesus freak by extreme measures...so much so that he gives his daughter a very Biblical name.
If you look at woman of the Bible--I'm talking about Old Testament, here--you'll find some names that are beautiful and feminine and still very much trendy today, i.e. Rebecca, Eve/Eden, Abigail, Martha, Sarah, Rachel, Olivia, and so on. The thing is, you don't really think of them as being very Biblical (except for Eve/Eden--that's a bit on-the-nose.) So then I thought, if she had a name that was really Biblical, like ugly and long and hard to pronounce, then that would contrast nicely with how beautiful and progressive (she's not as devout as her father) she really is. My initial list consisted of the following names: Bathsheba, Casiphia, Delilah, *Elisheba, *Hephzibah, Hosannah, Maresha and Nazarene, with the two starred names being leading contenders. But these names are hard to pronounce--too hard. And many of them don't have cute nicknames. I was going with "Ellie" for Elisheba, but do me a favor and try to pronounce "Elisheba". It sucks, donit? Not only is it ugly, but it just flat out does not look or sound like a name. So I buried it. "Pip", "Pippa" and "Penny" would work nice for Hephzibah, but the same issue stands. Also, my character just does not look like a "Pippa" in my mind.
So I have it narrowed down to two.
1. Genesis--The first book in the Old Testament, the beginning of life. Her father believes the Bible is true, and so his daughter will be the example of how right and beautiful and true it is. Her nickname would be "Genny".
Or...
2. Jezebel--Her father could be the cruel and distrusting type--and perhaps a member of the evil force?--and wants to give her a constant reminder of how women are evil and how they are responsible for all the sin in the world and how women need to be reminded more of how they came from man. He's punishing her, essentially, and in some way, her husband's death was her fault. The nickname I would use is "Jessie". Also, "Salome" was another possibility for this path.
If you have thoughts or suggestions, please let me know!
This second name issue I have is with the hero of one of my girls in Series 2. I think I'm going to make her sort of a Robin Hood character set in the Wild West. She's coming across as a bad girl--a sort of virgin-slut thief--to appeal to the bad boys who will hopefully lead her to the evil of the Universe. The hero is a Pinkerton detective sent to capture her, as she's been leaving a trail of robbed men from LA to Chicago. (All her profits, however, go to good causes since she's essentially a princess in disguise and has no need for these ill-gotten funds.) Haven't gotten a first name for this guy yet, but that can wait. When I first found the surname Youngblood I thought that was magnificent--Detective Youngblood. But then an hour later I came across the honest-to-God surname "Sheriff". How funny would that be if this character was named "Detective Sheriff", with the ongoing joke through the whole book, with all the characters he comes across, being, "So, what are you then--a detective or a sheriff?" Heh. Maybe it's just funny to me.
At any rate, I would love some suggestions!
~
With writing on a hold for a couple more weeks or so, I've decided that I'm going to start making my website. I've owned my domain name for about two years and haven't done anything with it yet. Shame on me. I have some good ideas that will only get better as I actually start getting published.
And speaking of which, I got my first flashes of impatience with not being done and having something out there for people to read. I write in my blog, I tweet, but I feel kind of silly doing so without putting a tome out there for others to enjoy and comment on. I'm all talk and no actions, although there is a lot of hamster wheelin' goin' on in my head at all hours of the day and night. I need to get my shit together so I can realize my dream quicker.
JLH
